Convoy HX 194 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)

Convoy HX 194 Cruising Order
Departed Halifax on June 14-1942 and arrived Liverpool on the 26th (Arnold Hague's "The Allied Convoy System" gives 32 ships).

List received from Ted Agar. (His source: A diary, which includes ships joining from Halifax only. Although the information is usually incomplete, as it appears to be in this case, I consider this diary valuable and important in and of itself and, therefore, I've chosen to transcribe it and keep it "as is" on this website, adding further details and/or corrections from other sources separately, rather than within the form itself [except for cargoes], as seen below).

Cargoes have been extracted from a document received from D. Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for HX 194 at Ships in all HX convoys.

Underlined ships returned to port (according to A. Hague), except those that are linked, which will automatically be underlined. The Norwegian Tungsha, however, did return.

(The stations shown here are at time of departure, and may have changed as the voyage progressed).

Br=British, Du=Dutch, Norw=Norwegian, Sw=Swedish, Am=American, Can=Canadian.

11
Daghestan
grain
CAM ship
(Br)

21
Voco
lub. oil
(Br)

31
Tarazed
Naval stores
Iceland
(Am)

51
Corner Brook
steel - paper
(Br)

61
Malayan Prince
general
1622 mails
3 passengers
(Br)

81
Menelaus
general
43 passengers
(Br)

91
Empire Day
grain
CAM ship
(Br)

32
City of Dieppe
Admiralty stores
(Br)

Egyptian Prince

general
(Br)

62
Tetela
general - mails
(Br)

82
Jamaica Producer
refrig. - general
(Br)

13
Tungsha
general
(Norw)
collided See Notes below

23
Kaaparen
general
(Sw)
collided - sank See Notes below

33
Daldorch
general
(Br)

53
Pacific Shipper
general
(Br)

63
Norheim
aviation gas
(Norw)

73
Thorshov
aviation gas
(Norw)

14
Belle Isle
(Br [Fr?])

34
Bic Island
general
(Can)

44
Tjileboet
general - wheat
(Du)

54
Charles H. Cramp
general
(Am)

74
Thorstrand
bacon
(Norw)

94
Torvanger*
(Norw)
Sunk
See Notes below

Tarazed had previously been cancelled from the slow Convoy SC 87.

City of Dieppe had returned to port from the previous convoy, HX 193.

*When comparing this information with A. Hague's listing for HX 194 at Ships in all HX convoys, we see that he has added some ships that are not mentioned in the diary, as follows:
In station 41 - The British Dromus, cargo of aviation gas
In station 71 - The British Athelprincess, cargo of molasses.
In station 92 - The British Ocean Hope, general cargo
In station 83 - The Panamanian Capulin, general cargo
In station 93 - The British Fort la Maune, cargo of grain
In station 64 - The American Alcoa Leader, general cargo.
In station 84 - The British Empire Trader, refrig, general
In station 42 - The American Lightning, refrig.

A. Hague has also included the Panamanian Azra, but no station number is given - heading to St. John's, N.F. for Greenland. Note that this ship had also previously been cancelled from SC 87.

The ship in station 31 is listed as USS Tarazed. Belle Isle is listed as American, also bound for St. John's, N.F. He has the Dutch Tjilboet in station 43 (note his spelling). For Torvanger, he has a note saying, possibly with HX 194 and detached (cargo and station are not given) - see also Notes below.

Also, he says British Power put back with engine defects (cargo and station number are not given - later joined HX 196, see also ON 92), and that Egyptian Prince returned following a collision with the American Lightning on June 17. Egyption Prince is listed in HX 197, joining from St. John's.

Notes:
* The diary lists the ship in station 94 as Tavanger, which I'm assuming should be Torvanger (cancelled from Convoy HX 193). She left the convoy on June 19, and was sunk on June 23 by U-84 - see my page about Torvanger for more details; cargo is given as 8000 tons of war materials, including tanks, ammunition, gliders in crates on deck and several thousand cases of beer for Alexandria.

The Swedish Kaaparen sank following a collision with the Norwegian Tungsha as the convoy was forming - see my page about Tungsha. The Norwegian ship returned after the collision, subsequently joining the next convoy, HX 195.

The ships left Halifax in the following order (according to the diary):
The first to leave at 10:58 was Tarazed, followed at 11:16 by Corner Brook, then with a few minutes between each ship, Menelaus (wide green band on top of stack), Stiklestad, Daghestan (Catapult freighter, LUU on Hurricane), Thorshov, Thorstrand, Empire Day (Catapult freighter), Marathon, British Power, Voco, Norheim, Kaaparen, Harpefjell, Malayan Prince, City of Dieppe, Tungsha, Torvanger, Bic Island, Egyptian Prince, Charles H. Cramp, Pacific Shipper, Belle Isle, Daldorch, Tetela, Tjileboet. The last ship to go out at 12:51 was Jamaica Producer.

A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of HX convoy escorts, also received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
FS Lobelia - From 17/06/42 to 25/06/42
FS Renoncule - From 17/06/42 to 25/06/42
Harvester - From 17/06/42 to 26/06/42
La Malbaie - From 14/06/42 to 17/06/42
Narvik - From 26/06/42 to 26/06/42
Orchis - From 17/06/42 to 25/06/42
Piorun - From 17/06/42 to 26/06/42
Roxborough - From 14/06/42 to 17/06/42
Summerside - From 14/06/42 to 17/06/42
USS Badger - From 22/06/42 to 22/06/42
Wanderer - From 14/06/42 to 17/06/42

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